TOONWAVES.CO.UK

A few weeks ago I interviewed Brilliant Mind frontman Calum Lynn for an article for BBC Tyne. Here’s our chat in full. You can read the finished article here.

Toonwaves: Firstly, how are things going?

Calum Lynn: Things are okay. I’m unsuccessfully looking for a job at the moment- turns out you even need a degree to operate a photocopier these days. However, I got my bike fixed the other day, so it’s not all doom and gloom.

TW: What’s been happening with Brilliant Mind since our last chat?

CL: Not much, really. We recorded another demo in June, which sounds alright, but I was away for most of the summer, and then Joe was finishing off his degree so it’s only really since the start of October that we’ve been playing music again. We played a really enjoyable gig for Oxjam at the Boathouse a few weeks ago, and I’ve been writing quite a bit. We’ve got a new song in the set, too.

TW: You’re playing North East Beat Unsigned. How did that come about?

CL: Well, ever since New Vinyls we’ve been very involved with Generator, playing quite a few gigs for them, I actually met half of New Vinyls at a band workshop that Generator put on in 2004. Joe from Generator asked us to play at the Spearhead event back in May, which was fantastic. And then we were offered the North East Beat gig at the Discovery Museum! We’re all really excited about it- I’ve been visiting the Discovery Museum since before it was even called that (so pretty much for as long as I can remember), and I also think that the North East Beat exhibition is brilliant, it feels special to be a part of all that. It’s refreshing to be playing a gig with other young bands- there don’t seem to be all too many bands our age gigging around here.

TW: Give me a bit if background on the band for readers who haven’t heard you yet.

CL: Well, we’re a five piece band, four of us are from the North East and Kate our keyboard player is from Hull. We formed about 10 months ago after disbanding our previous outfit, New Vinyls. We played our first gig in March, recorded a couple of demos, wrote some more songs, and we’re all getting counseling to help us cope with the fact that The Cooperage has closed down.

TW: How would you describe the band’s sound?

CL: When we started, we decided that we didn’t want to try and create a “new” sound. I think that’s a very unhealthy ambition for a band, something like that can only come with time- unless you’re very lucky, which we’re not. When we were still New Vinyls, I became very aware that I was only writing dull indie pop tunes, so I stopped writing songs altogether and tried to make us go down a rather misguided 70s disco fusion route in a very contrived effort to do something ‘different’, much to the horror of the rest of the band. Eventually I realised that perhaps our songs were good enough to stand out from the crowd without boasting a ‘groundbreaking’ new sound… and here we are. Brilliant Mind. That is not to say that we’re content to rip off bands. We each have really rather differing tastes in music, and we’re in no way trying to replicate a particular band, decade or era. We simply play guitar based pop music, with good songs, which is what matters.

TW: You used to be New Vinyls. Are you still pleased you made the change to Brilliant Mind?

CL: Definitely. I had grown very tired of New Vinyls, and I think that everyone outside of the band had too. Most people seemed to think of us as a slightly daft (using loads of instruments and giving out biscuits to the audience didn’t exactly help us in that respect) pop band who had once toured with the Maccabees but weren’t really up to much anymore. We’d been dismissed really, so it was time to move on.

TW: What inspires you as a songwriter?

CL: It sounds daft, but I find the places around where I live quite inspiring, in a boring way I suppose. I live in Whitley Bay and I really love this area, the old railways lines, and the semi-rural roads a bit further north near Bedlington and Seaton Deleval, and the slightly mysterious freight lines that run up towards Ashington. All the songs are set around here, except for Our Osprey. Every song is some form of story, so I find the settings for my songs really important, I like the fact that I could take a photograph of the exact location of each incident mentioned in the songs. Although maybe that would be going a little too far! Most of the songs are about various things which have happened to me, and a few of them are short stories I’ve written- but these are usually based on people I’ve met or things which have happened to me anyway.

TW: Where do you see yourself fitting into the North East music scene?

CL: I have no idea! We’ve been offered some ace gigs and had quite a bit of positive feedback, but I’m yet to be convinced that we’ve got any sort of following or fanbase or anything like that. We definitely haven’t “created a niche for ourselves in the local scene”, we’re not Little Comets or anything.
However, I think the scene around here is very strong and mostly friendly, and any band, as long as they’re good, can fit in.

TW: You’ve played plenty of gigs with other local bands. Any favourites?

My favourite band from these parts by far is O’Messy Life, they’re something else, I’m jealous of how good their songs are. Also I love Mansfield Holiday, they’re a really new band and they’ve only played a couple of gigs, it’s kinda like Pulp/Hefner/Art Brut/Wedding Present type stuff.
We played an Our Beat Is Correct gig at the Cluny 2 last night and every band on the bill was brilliant- Mammal Club and B>E>A>K> especially.

TW: What are your plans for the future?

Well, we’ve got gigs up until the 2nd of January… hopefully we’ll get offered some more!